Second place isn't bad!

Thank you to everyone who voted for my video in the yougottaread.com March contest. The video for "Kidnapped" came in on second place, and I think that's pretty good considering the book won't be out for another month. =D Time for a happy dance!!! I am eagerly awaiting the cover; I'll post it as soon as it is finalized.

In other news, I have been working on edits for "Return of the Goddess" - the third installation in the Goddess's Saga. If everything goes as planned, it will be available soon. How soon? Really soon. I will also make a collection volume of all three books, and I think it will be beautiful. These books have their own Facebook page, head on over there and check out sneak previews from all the books in the series!

I have made a beautiful Goddess bookmark based on the cover to the right. If you go to the Facebook page, like it, and send me a message with your address I will send you a signed bookmark and maybe a little surprise!

What else is happening this week? Well, I have an interview with talented Jillian Chantal coming up April 1st. Keep your eyes open!

Interview with Lynette Endicott

There are many interesting people in the world, and today's guest has hobbies that fascinate me. Lynette Endicott lives surrounded by family and pets, writes romance novels, and collects castles. Yes, you heard me right; she collects castles!

Castle-Collecting Romance Novelist

Please tell us your latest news!

My debut book, More than a Job has just been released by Desert Breeze Publishing.


If you were to do it all over again, would you change anything in your lasted book?

Well, because I love the characters, they have continued to live in my head, and I have an epilogue playing out. Or maybe a sequel or companion book. We'll see.


How does your family feel about having a writer in the family? Do they read your books?

My brother is also an author, in a completely different genre, so even though I am the eldest I am not the first to publish a book. My sister directs a Literacy Center in a nearby county. All five kids are readers, something we learned from our parents, who have always been voracious readers as well. We are PKs - Preacher's Kids - and I admit I did edit some of the steamier scenes when I realized that Mom and Dad would read my book.


Can you tell us something behind-the-scenes about this book that the readers would love to hear - something not easily found on your website?

More than a Job is about a woman who worked in group homes for adults with developmental disabilities. I worked in the disability field, both in disability rights and in programs like the one in the book, for more than 30 years. I am developing some guidelines about writing characters who have disabilities, because of that experience.


Do your fictional characters develop on their own, or do you have their lives planned out in advance?

A little of both! I find that even if I have the plot mapped out and the character develop written down, the characters often go off in unexpected directions. In More than a Job there is a significant event in Paige's life that wasn't in my mind in advance at all.


Do you base any of your characters personalities off people you know, and if so, do you tell them?

Not consciously, but sometimes a friend or family member will remind me that an event or conversation or characteristic is from someone in real life. I think my writer's mind tucks away memories that might make good stories, and then pulls them out when they are needed without my conscious action.


When did you discover you are a writer? Was there a specific catalyst?

I've always written stories. My mom kept some of the imaginative ones from grade school and always declared I was a writer. When I was 14 I was in a class that went on a field trip to a nearby prison. All the people wrote their impressions, and I was chosen to put them together to submit to a youth magazine. The article about our trip, with comments from my classmates, was the first thing I published. By the time I graduated from college, ten other articles were accepted by that publisher.


What's your favorite place you've visited? Do you have a "must see" destination on your bucket list?

I love British Columbia. Vancouver and Victoria are beautiful, diverse, and interesting cities. Scotland and Ireland, especially ares of our ancestors, are definitely on my Bucket List.

So, I can't wait anymore, tell me about the castles!

I collect castles on glass, wood, sand, on cups and plates, candles... Everything imaginable, I have almost 100 different ones.

Anything else you want to share?

Stay tuned. If you enjoy More than a Job, there are two more books coming in 2012.

When she loses the job that was her full existence, Paige Hamilton learns that there are more important things in life - including love. Can Joshua draw her away from her anger at his company and into his arms?

For more information, visit Lynette at:
http://lynetteendicott.com
http://lynetteendicott.blogspot.com

Lynette also has an author page at Desert Breeze Publishing:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-template/LynetteEndicott/Page.bok

Video contest!

Inspired by the great success of last month's video contest, I entered another one! This time, it is my book trailer for "Kidnapped". (Released by Desert Breeze Publishing on May 11.)

If I were to win, I would get fame and glory, bragging rights, and some very attractive advertising space for the book. Definitely worth competing over!

Check out the page: http://yougottaread.com/category/video-contest/

My video is number one in the list; Kidnapped. If you choose to vote for me, you'll have my never ending gratitude. :-)

Tomorrow, there will be a new author interview here on my blog. Lynette Endicott comes over to talk about her new book, and about castles! Don't miss it!

Invention wish list

I think everyone knows the feeling of running around trying to do a million things at once and accomplishing nothing. On TV everyone looks so perfect, and the women are always well dressed with perfect hair and perfece make-up. Looking at myself, slouching in front of the computer dressed in shorts covered in dog hair and a saggy T-shirt, without a trace of even mascara and with my hair standing to all sides, the comparison does not look good. (Yes, I do realize they get paid to look like that, but anyway, LOL!)

Don't get me wrong; I want to look good, but everything can't happen at once. Anyway, it made me think of Alexandra in "Brand New World" (the first novella in the Embarkment series.) Her bathroom in the future has a mask that spraypaints perfect make-up on the user in a couple of seconds. I bet it does her hair too. I want one, it would be SO convenient!!! Maybe Apple could invent one and call it iBeauty, and then they could build an iVacuum and iLaundry too.

Other stuff going on? Yes! On Thursday (March 22) Lynette Endicott comes over to talk about her new book. Keep your eyes open!

I won, I won, I won! *does happy dance*

Good news! Thanks to everyone who voted, my video for Embarkment 2577 won first place in the YouGottaRead videocontest! Besides joy and bragging rights, I won several months worth of advertising space! Happy Joy Joy!!! I will have a video in the March contest too; the trailer for Kidnapped is already up on their website, but voting doesn't start until later in the month.

Other exciting news; I am in the midst of the first round of edits for "Kidnapped," and May 11 that seemed so far away this fall is closing in rapidly. The book will be here before I know it!

I bet my editor got a few good laughs from the first read-through; my head knows exactly what happens and what every page is supposed to say, and I never even noticed I'd written clever things like, "time seized to exist." What exactly did I think it was doing? Having a seizure? Did someone grab it? I used to blame being foreign, but that excuse is worn a little thin by now, so I'll have to come up with a new one. =D Maybe I can say my dog walked on the keyboard; it happens more often than one would think - especially if he hears sirens outside. The result is usually along the lines of, o090om,ljkl;lk, but with a little training he might learn to type. (Yes, I am very optimistic about his abilities, but he's part border collie, so it could happen...)

Meanwhile, check out my new video for "Invasion and other short stories." Invasion is the main story in the book, and the one most like my normal way of writing.

Rob Sadler - with Vengeance!

A couple of years ago I hardly knew what Urban Fiction was, and then I won a book in a contest. It painted out a world of supernatural creatures and adventures right here, in the modern world, and it intrigued me. That book was "Rebirth of the Chosen" by Rob Sadler, and it is my great pleasure to welcome this innovative author to my blog!

Rob Sadler - coming out with VENGEANCE!

Welcome Rob! Please tell us your latest news!

Well my new book “VENGEANCE” is due out any day now. It’s a compilation of short stories that all revolve around people that get exactly what they deserve!

I can't wait to read that! Is there a single book or author that made you want to write? 

I had always loved creative writing and I had even toyed around with writing a fantasy book when I was younger. I loved David Eddings, Robert Jordan, and Terry Goodkind. With that said, it wasn’t until I happened across Wild Blood by Nancy A. Collins that I realized there truly was a genre that could suit me. After I read Midnight Blue, also by Collins I knew I would be a writer eventually!

How does your family feel about having a writer in the family? Do they read your books? 

As far as I know everyone seems to love the idea, though I know not everyone has read me. I do run a lot of my ideas past my wife and occasionally my Mom. It felt a little weird the first time I handed an un-edited manuscript to my Mom considering the amount of sex in my one series but thankfully I have a really cool family! They are all very proud of me for going after what I want.

What do you love about your latest book?  

In VENGEANCE I love that I went completely away from the paranormal and dealt with realistic situations. Horror and gore are fun, but psychological thrillers that have a foundation in reality can hit you harder. Now in Revelations Out Of Darkness I’m writing in a ton of new characters, some of which will play big roles in book 3 of the series. New characters are always fun!

Do your fictional characters develop on their own, or do you have their lives planned out in advance? 

My books start at the ending, and then I create a base set of characters. I place the characters in situations and have them react the way I feel they really would based on their individual personalities. I know what the ultimate outcome will be, but I let the characters find their own way. Of course sometimes the characters choices change the ending as well but I deal with that as it comes too.

Do you base any of your characters personalities off people you know, and if so, do you tell them? 

I have loosely based characters off of people I know and in a couple of cases I have let the person know. I find I do that right at first so that I have a basis for how they would move, or react. The characters take on their own personality with time.

What type of scene do you enjoy writing the most?

That is easy, combat and violence in general come to me so easily that I can’t wait to get to a good action sequence. A close tie would be the scenes involving intimacy, romance, and sex, anything with emotional vulnerability. I guess in all cases it’s a deep emotional submersion that I really enjoy. The kind of scene I can play out in my head and really feel the impact it’s going to have on the reader be it good or bad.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced in writing? 

Without question it’s editing, editing, editing, oh yea and editing! I love to write but I find that when I read my own work I see the scene the way I wrote it in my head and not necessarily the way it really look on paper. I can read the same misspelled word twenty times before I notice because I am so wrapped up in the entire scene and not each individual word.

Visit Rob on Facebook!

See more of Rob on his website: http://www.rsadlerbooks.com